How to Trigger an FTP Upload From an Email

Part 1: Setting Up the Global Configurations and Connections

Before you can use the required tools in a task, you must complete the following setup first.

Part 1A — Creating the Connection to the SMTP Server

The server hosting BPA Platform must have a valid, working connection to an SMTP server or SMTP service such as Office365™ (see How to Use an Office 365 Account for Send Email (SMTP) and BPA Platform Notifications) or Gmail^® (see How to Use a Google Account for Send Email (SMTP) and BPA Platform Notifications).

Add valid recipient and sender email addresses to the Address Book.

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Part 1B — Creating the Connection to the FTP Server

You must create the connection to the FTP server where the file is uploaded to. You do this in the global configuration. You open this interface from the resources tree — expand System > Tools > General and double-click File Management in the items list.

1. Click Add to create a new connection.

   

   Click the image to view full size.

2. Enter a unique and meaningful Name for this connection.
3. Choose the relevant Connection Type — for a detailed description of each, see Choosing the Connection Type.
4. Enter the Server address to connect to — you can use the hostname, IP address, or a valid URL.
5. If not port 21, enter the required TCP port used to communicate with this server.
6. Enable Passive Mode if required by your server.
7. In Server Directory, enter the folder path on the server where the required files are located.
8. In Download Directory, enter the folder path on this BPA Platform computer where files are downloaded to.
9. Enable Anonymous Login if allowed by the FTP server, else clear the selection for this box and enter the required Username and Password.
10. At this point, you can click Test to ensure the connection is successful.
11. Click OK to save the connection.

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Part 1C — Creating the Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent

Every time an email is received to a specific email address, we want the task to run. We do this with the Email Trigger (SMTP) tool, which comes with an Agent that monitors the incoming SMTP messages.

The Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent works with the Email Trigger (SMTP) tool to process incoming SMTP messages. It can run on the same or separate computer to the server. It launches tasks when messages arrive that match filter rules previously configured within a Email Trigger (SMTP) step for a task.

It interfaces with Microsoft Virtual SMTP Server which is part of the Microsoft Internet Information Services. When a message is received by the Virtual SMTP Server, a copy of the message is passed to the Agent which in turn decides if there are any tasks to run.

You install the Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent on the same computer hosting the SMTP server you want to monitor.

1. Download the BPA Platform 2024 installation from our Partner Area.
2. Unzip the file to your preferred location on the BPA Platform computer.
3. Run self-setup.exe to launch the Installation Console.

   As part of the initial launch process, required installation files are extracted to C:\Windows\Installer. You must ensure this folder is not deleted as the Installation Console requires these files for any further installations, upgrades, or component un-installs.

   

   Click the image to view full size.

4. (Optional) By default, all files are installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\Codeless Platforms\BPA Platform. To change the destination folder, click Modify and select the relevant folder.

   If you are installing onto the same computer hosting the BPA Platform server, you cannot change the default folder paths so this can be skipped.

5. (Optional) By default, the Installation Console uses C:\iwtemp as a temporary folder during installation. To change the temporary folder, click Modify and select the relevant folder.

   If you are installing onto the same computer hosting the BPA Platform server, you cannot change the default folder paths so this can be skipped.

6. Click Install for the Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent feature.
7. As part of the installation process, Internet Information Services (IIS) may require a restart if certain features are installed. If you don't want IIS to restart during this installation, click No to end the installation; else click Yes to continue.
8. If you are installing onto the same computer hosting the BPA Platform server, this step is skipped.

   Enter your BPA Platform product key and click Next.

   Note that the key is case-sensitive.

   If you do not have a product key, contact your account manager or business partner.

9. Click Yes to start the installation.

   Progress is displayed at the bottom of the console.

10. When complete, you can choose whether to immediately configure the Agent or do this at a later stage. It is recommended you configure this now as you cannot create tasks using the Email Trigger (SMTP) tool until then.

    Click Launch to start the Configurator You use the Configurator to install third-party software that may be required by available tools. Connection to required agents are also configured here. Note that you can only launch the Configurator if logged into the machine with Administrator rights..

11. If any of the Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent prerequisites are not met, the Configurator opens to Event Agents > Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent > Prerequisites so these can be resolved first.
    1. The Configurator checks for software which the Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent requires. If any are missing or not configured properly, a is displayed. Click Install or Modify as appropriate to resolve the problem.
    2. Click Next to move to the Event Agents > Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent > Registration Settings node.
12. If all prerequisites are met, the Configurator opens to Event Agents > Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent > Registration Settings.

13. You must register the Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent with the BPA Platform server.

    By default, the Configurator assumes the local computer is also the BPA Platform server. Click Save to complete the configuration.

    If this is a remote agent, do the following:

    1. Enable Change Settings.
    2. Enter the Server hostname where the relevant BPA Platform client is installed
    3. If required, provide a new unique Agent Name. Although the computer name is appended to the Agent Name, it is useful from a task builder's point of view to have unique names.
    4. Click Save.
14. Enter the Administrator's password to confirm the Agent registration.

No further configuration is required for the Agent in the Configurator so you can close it down.

Before being used in a task step, you can change how the Email Trigger (SMTP) tool checks and stores the email for the trigger properties:

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All messages received by the SMTP Virtual Server are sent to the Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent for processing before being sent to the intended recipient (Direct Delivery Mode, default behaviour). To the user, this appears to be a normal, direct delivery service.

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All messages received by the SMTP Virtual Server are sent to the Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent for processing. You can then choose to forward the message to the intended recipient or abort the message. This is particularly useful where the recipient email address does not have an actual mailbox. (Mail Intercept Mode)

For this exercise, the default option (Direct Delivery Mode) is sufficient so no further configuration is required.

Part 2: Capturing and Storing the Email Details

This task uses task variables Variables are created and used extensively throughout and can either have fixed values or values that are dynamically populated when a task is run. Task variables are only available for the specific task they are created for. Users with Task Administrator rights can create task variables. to capture the required details from the email. These variables are recognised and can be used by all steps in the task.

1. Create a new task named Software Request.
2. Add a Description: Upload files to FTP server and email customer the location. Task triggers when trial software request received.
3. Go to the Design tab.

Task variables are created in the task itself, and are not available for use by other tasks.

1. From the Task Browser, go to the Environment tab.
2. Change Scope to be Task.
3. Right-click on Variables and select New.
4. Name the variable: SentFromEmail.
5. Go to the Details tab.
6. Set Type to be Variant.

   This ensures the variable can store any type of text.

7. Enable Parameter.

   This ensures the variable can store task data and make it available to other task steps.

8. From the Parameter Attributes, select In, Out.

   This allows the variable to both received inputs and product outputs.

9. From the Scope drop-down, select Task Instance.

   This ensures the variable is reset every time the task completes — we do not want to run the task again for the same email address.

10. Click OK to save the new variable.

Create five more variables with the same configuration as detailed above:

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SoftwareType

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SoftwareVersion

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FTPLocation

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EmailBody

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Customer

Part 3: Building the Task

Now we can start building the task.

Part 3A — Triggering the Task to Run

We want this task to run when an account goes on hold— we use the Email Trigger (SMTP) tool to do this. In this exercise, we're going to instruct the Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent to monitor for emails with a subject line of Software Request.

1. If you have previously closed the Software Request task, reopen it and go to the Design tab.
2. Right-click in the design area and select New > Event > Email Trigger (SMTP).
3. Name the step: Trigger when Email Received.
4. Add a description: Triggers when "Software Request" email subject received.
5. Go to the Main tab.
6. From the Use Agent drop-down, choose the Agent you installed in Part 1C — Creating the Email Trigger (SMTP) Agent.

Now we must specify the criteria for the emails that trigger this task, that is, all emails where the subject is "Software Request" — this is referred to as a filter.

1. Click Add.
2. From the Mail Property drop-down, select Subject.
3. Change Filter Mask to read Software Request — The default of * indicates that everything matches this filter.
4. Click OK to save this filter.
5. As we're only having the single filter, you can leave All of the above enabled.

Finally, we must map the details from the received email so that other parts of the task can use them:

1. From the Mapping table, map the following task variables to parameters (click (unmapped) for each variable to display available parameters):

Task Variable	Parameter
SentFromEmail	Sent From
EmailBody	Body Text

 

Leave all other task variables unmapped.

2. Click OK to save the task step.

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Part 3B — Extracting Customer Details from the Email

We now need to extract the customer details from the received email so that the task provides the requested version back to the customer. This is the format of the email body received:

Name=John Smith

EmailAddress=demo@bpa.com

SoftwareType=BPA Platform

SoftwareVersion=2020

We use the Parse Text tool to extract the above details from the email.

1. If you have previously closed the Software Request task, reopen it and go to the Design tab.
2. Right-click in the design area and select New > General > Parse Text.
3. Name this step: Extract Software Details.
4. Go to the Main tab.
5. From the Task Browser, change Scope to Task.
6. Expand Variables and drag EmailBody to the Data text box in the Main tab.
7. Click Add.
8. Name this rule: Get Customer Name.
9. Change the Type drop-down to Extract between [C1] and [C2].
10. From the Parameters table, double-click the Value space for C1.
11. Enter Name=.
12. For C2, enter EmailAddress=.
13. From the Variable output drop-down, select the Customer variable.
14. Enable all three options underneath and click OK.
15. Create the following additional rules, ensuring you enable Remove leading spaces, Remove trailing spaces, and Remove CR and LF for all. If you create them in a different order to the one specified here, use the green arrows to reorder them. This isn't so important in this task, but if using rules that rely in on previous rule outcomes, you must ensure the order is correct.

Name	Extraction Type	Variable
Get Email Address	Extract between [EmailAddress=] and [SoftwareType=]	SentFromEmail
Get Software Type	Extract between [SoftwareType=] and [SoftwareVersion=]	SoftwareType
Get Software Version	Extract after [SoftwareVersion=] to the end of the line	SoftwareVersion

16. Click OK to save this step.

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Part 3C — Creating the FTP Location

This task creates the FTP location to upload the files to by combining the customer name and requested software. We'll create a script to do the combination in the Run VBScript tool:

1. If you have previously closed the Software Request task, reopen it and go to the Design tab.
2. Right-click in the design area and select New > Execute > Run VBScript.
3. Name this step: Create FTPLocation.
4. Go to the Main tab.
5. In the Task Browser, change Scope to Task.
6. Drag the FTPLocation variable to the script area.
7. Configure the rest of the script as follows:

   Variables("FTPLocation") = Variables("Customer") + Variables("SoftwareType") + Variables("SoftwareVersion")

8. Click OK to save this step.

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Part 3D — Uploading the Requested Software

For this task, we are going to upload the requested software from an accessible location to an FTP server. We do this with the File Management tool.

1. If you have previously closed the Software Request task, reopen it and go to the Design tab.
2. Right-click in the design area and select New > General > File Management.
3. Name this step: Upload Software.
4. Build the Path for the software location with the SoftwareType task variable Variables are created and used extensively throughout and can either have fixed values or values that are dynamically populated when a task is run. Task variables are only available for the specific task they are created for. Users with Task Administrator rights can create task variables..

   For this task, the software is saved in a local folder called "Software", containing sub-folders whose names match the value of SoftwareType therefore Path is configured as:

   C:\Software\{=Variables("SoftwareType")}\

   (Drag the variable from the Task Browser to the text box.)

5. Build File Name this time using the SoftwareVersion variable.

   Again, for this task, the filename matches the value SoftwareVersion therefore File Name is configured as:

   {=Variables("SoftwareVersion")}.zip

6. Go to the Main tab.
7. From the Select Option pane, enable Upload.
8. From the Connection drop-down, select the global connection you created in Part 1B — Creating the Connection to the FTP Server.
9. Enable Override global server directory setting and drag the FTPLocation variable form the Task Browser to the Directory text box.
10. Enable Create destination folder if not found.
11. Click OK to save the step.

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Part 3E — Emailing the Customer About the Software Location

The final step in the task is to email the customer back with the details of where their requested software is. You do this with the Send Email (SMTP) tool:

1. If you have previously closed the Software Request task, reopen it and go to the Design tab.
2. Right-click in the design area and select New > Output > Send Email (SMTP).
3. Name this step: Email Customer Software Location.
4. Go to the Connection tab and select the global connection you created in Part 1A — Creating the Connection to the SMTP Server.
5. Go to the Main tab.
6. Click From and select an appropriate from address from the configured list.
7. We're going to use the task variables to build a dynamic email address. Click To then New.
8. From the Task Browser, change Scope to Task.
9. Drag the Customer variable to Name.
10. Drag the SentFromEmail variable to Address.

    

11. Click OK to return to the Send Email (SMTP) step window.
12. Enter the Subject as: Your Requested Software.
13. In the message area, enter the following email, dragging the required variables from the Task Browser to their location:

Dear {=Variables("Customer")},

Thank you for your email requesting {=Variables("SoftwareType")} version {=Variables("SoftwareVersion")}.

A copy has been made available for you to download from our FTP server, under the folder: {=Variables("FTPLocation")}.

Kind regards,

Codeless Platforms

14. Click OK to save and close the step.

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Part 3F — Linking the Steps

To ensure BPA Platform runs the steps in the correct order, the individual task steps must be linked. You do this by clicking a step to display the step controls — click and hold and draw the connector to its successor.

If required, you can add a label to the connection. Double-click the connection line and add the label, up to a maximum of 100 characters. Note that this is a pure-text field so variables, formulas, functions, and Task Browser properties cannot be used in this area.

Connect the steps as follows: